7 NOVEMBER 1896, Page 11

The Secret of the Fire Mountain. By K. M. Eady.

(A. Melrose.) —Reginald Wyke, falsely accused of the crime of forgery, takes refuge in an island of the Pacific, where he acquires a very con- siderable influence. It is the story of his fortunes at home, where his estate is coveted by an evil-minded relative, and abroad that we follow in this volume. The English part of it strikes us as scarcely probable. That there are men of the temper of Alfred Wyke is only too true, but they do not display their evil purposes quite so frankly. Alfred Wyke must have known that there were very serious difficulties to be overcome before he could hope to establish a claim to the estate. The Solomon Islands are, we must allow, a terra incognita to us, and the author is here beyond the reach of criticism. But he certainly makes a very readable narrative out of the adventures of the Wyke family.